Taibros.net

As of late, i’ve been pressured into actually writing a serious entry. While my policy for my participation in taibros.net is to be the judgmental armchair-philosopher, i can make a few exceptions.

At one point, in jest i told my friends, “I think God put me on this earth to challenge other people’s pride.” I still think that, but it reveals a specific issue that a lot of people have (if you want to flame me on this, you’re missing my point. Read, learn, digest - that is all).

That is the issue of PRIDE.

Pride is the hallmark of post-modern individualism; it is the mental articulation of the distinction between Me and Them. Pride proclaims that “I am! I exist! I matter!” We all want to be our own, we all want to be unique, we all want to be important in some way, shape or form. We grow up with a strongly individualistic mentality, in a society that says that “looking out for number one is the best way for everyone.” Many don’t realize this, but Capitalism, Individuality, Scientism are all merely mentalities and are just views and attitudes about whats important and whats not.

Pride makes us feel individual, and deep down we hold on to the fact that “I am me, and you are not.”

Of course, sometimes it backfires - but this is when pride is truly evident. When someone is better than you and perhaps rubs it in, it is your own pride that wants to say, “Go suck an Egg!” (or for the more productive individuals, to strive to become better). It fuels our ambitions, and is the principle emotion in competitive sports, and runs our economy.

Is Pride bad? I emphatically say yes. In every shape and form. But think about it, from the Christian viewpoint, man is created for the sole purpose of worshipping and glorifying God. The only one who can really proclaim “I AM!” is God himself (hence the name YHWH and its translation to the same).

Who are we to think we are important at all? For all we know, life could just be like the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15). But the twist is that we aren’t the lost son who squanders his fathers fortune, nor are we the son who stayed home and faithfully served his family. No, we might just very well be that fattened calf that the father cuts up to prepare a feast to celebrate the son’s return. Borne, Raised, Killed for the Gratification of the Owner.

We emphatically try to defend and justify our own actions, some of which are based on pride. I for one am probably a huge culprit (what other kind of person would say the kinds of things I say?) But thats why Man is sinful, and why we fall short of God’s glory. We are constantly looking down on others, forgetting to look up to God. As CS Lewis pointed out, who was the one who asserted his own pride than Satan himself. Being the brightest angel in the heavens, trying to become one like God, he rebelled, and was cast out of heaven and out of God’s presence.

Humility is the hardest thing to accomplish, but in the end it might be the greatest. Having a realization of who we are and what we are meant for gives us an identity that is not dependent on society, social norms, or contemporary ideologies. Our identity as Christians is and should be based on God. The Apostle John thought it best, as he described himself as “the one whom Christ loved.” We need to remember its all about God and its not about us. Anything to the contrary is part of our fault.

I saw a sign outside a church read this: “What is God without Man? God. What is Man without God? Nothing.”

I just ask you to think about my words: nothing more, nothing less. Deny it, and its your Pride talking. Affirm it, and I’ll probably think you’re crazy. The question you must ask is: What is your individual identity based upon? Yourself, or God.